A large number of sports clubs are based in the city. During the Communist era most clubs concentrated on all-round sporting development, therefore CSKA, Levski and Slavia are dominant not only in football but in many other team sports as well. Basketball and volleyball also have strong traditions in Sofia. A notable local basketball team is twice the European Champions Cup finalist Lukoil Akademik. The Bulgarian Volleyball Federation is the world's second-oldest, and it was an exhibition tournament organized by the BVF in Sofia that convinced the International Olympic Committee to include volleyball as an Olympic sport in 1957. Tennis is increasingly popular in the city. Currently, there are some ten tennis court complexes within the city including the one founded by former WTA top-ten athlete Magdalena Maleeva.

     Sofia applied to host the Winter Olympic Games in 1992 and in 1994, coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. The city was also an applicant for the 2014 Winter Olympics but was not selected as a candidate. In addition, Sofia hosted Eurobasket 1957 and the 1961 and 1977 Summer Universiades, as well as the 1983 and 1989 winter editions.

The city is home to a number of large sports venues, including the 43,000-seat Vasil Levski National Stadium which hosts international football matches, and Lokomotiv Stadium, the main venue for outdoor musical concerts. Armlets Arena holds many indoor events and has a capacity of up to 19,000 people depending on its use. The venue was inaugurated on July 30, 2011, and the first event it hosted was a friendly volleyball match between Bulgaria and Serbia.

     There are two ice skating complexes — the Winter Palace of Sports with a capacity of 4,000 and the Slavia Winter Stadium with a capacity of 2,000, both containing two rinks each. A velodrome with 5,000 seats in the city's central park is currently undergoing renovation. There are also various other sports complexes in the city which belong to institutions other than football clubs, such as those of the National Sports Academy, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, or those of different universities. There are more than fifteen swimming complexes in the city, most of them outdoor. Nearly all of these were constructed as competition venues and therefore have seating facilities for several hundred people.

     There are two golf courses just to the east of Sofia — in Elin Pelin (St. Sofia Club) and in Ihtiman (Air Sofia Club), and a horseriding club (St. George club).